USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > Reminiscences of Salem, Massachusetts : embracing notices of its eminent men known to the author forty years ago > Part 8
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THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY .... CHICAGO
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from attending and listening to the proceedings of the day. I regret this the more as a like cause prevented my attendance at your Endicott Festival.
I remain very truly yours,
CHAS. LEVI WOODBURY.
Henry Wheatland, Esq., President Essex Institute,
Salem, Mass.
DORCHESTER, June 17, 1880.
My dear president :
Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to meet the members of the Essex Institute and to join in the services which are to commemorate the landing of Win- throp 250 years ago. But I am just off from a similar service here yesterday,-the settlement of the town of Dorchester,- being pushed into the pulpit where I was obliged to preach for a while to the people.
Not having fully recovered from the combat which I had with the pavements of the State House last year, . I think it will not be prudent to go so far from home as Salem, at present, and as " discretion is the better part of valor," you will please accept this as my apology for not being with you on the 22d instant.
With profound respect, Yours, etc.,
MARSHALL P. WILDER.
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THE President mentioned that this day also commemo- rates the birthday of Rev. William Bentley, D. D., the pastor of the East church, Salem, and one of her most devoted , antiquarians and historical scholars. It is highly appropriate to conclude these exercises with the reading, by Rev. George H. Hosmer, the present occupant of that pulpit, of the following communication entitled : - '
A tribute to the memory of William Bentley, D. D., with a narrative, found among his papers, of a drive by Benjamin Ward, in company with his grandfather Miles Ward, about the town, in 1760 :- prepared by Stanley Waters :-
This day, which by the dutiful remembrance of their descendants commemorates the arrival upon these shores of that devoted company, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Governor John Winthrop, and other "Fathers of the New England Colony," by a happy coincidence marks also the anniver- sary of the birth of a man, justly entitled to rank with these honored names as a founder, though living more than a century later, of the broad and elevated civilization, in which our State and community share,-a man who joined the breadth and gentleness of Saltonstall with the efficiency and single-mindedness of Winthrop,-"the late learned and catholic Dr. Bentley," a name revered by those who sat at his feet in his lifetime, and dear to their descendants, who can, perhaps even better than they, com- pare his high qualities and great acquirements with those of the masters of the present time, and estimate the ser- vice his character and life have done in giving this com- munity some of the notable qualities which have marked it.
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William Bentley, born in Boston, June 22, 1759, pastor of the East church from 1783 for the rest of his life, died the evening of Dec. 29, 1819; dropping dead in- stantly on his return from an errand of charity that winter's night. This is not the time nor the occasion to recount his actions,-to enlarge upon his excellences. Suffice it to say that he was a man far in advance of his time, an original and deep and free thinker, yet of a truly religious nature ; a scholar of a reputation not con- fined to his own country, and of a wide erudition; an enthusiastic student of natural history and philosophy, of social science, of languages even those of the far distant East, of statistics of which he was a careful gatherer; of history and its lessons as especially bearing upon the wel- fare of mankind ; of politics as they affected the welfare of his native land to which he was so patriotically attached ; a lover of art, a zealous antiquarian, and indefatigably · industrious in collecting and recording anything relating to his studies, his pursuits, his parish, and his life.
Add to this that he was a philanthropist of the broadest views, a pastor the idol of his people, and a distinguished preacher, and we have a combination of excellences rarely to be met with in one man, and worthy of remembrance by us all.
It has fallen to me lately to inspect the rich and volu- minous evidences of his talents and his industry (deposited, in the care of a society of a kindred nature to your own, but unfortunately far away from this the scene of his labors where they would be of daily service to the local student), and I send you an extract therefrom that may prove not uninteresting, considering not only the addi- tional light thrown by it upon our early topography, and the interesting information relative to the place chosen for your meeting, but also the great affection Dr. Bentley
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felt for the Neck, with its beautiful scenery and interest- ing historical associations, as shown by its being the chosen object of his daily morning walk.
The following conversation, prefaced by a slight genea- logical account, is the sole contents of a small manuscript book, found among Dr. Bentley's papers, and written by Benjamin Ward, the grandson of the venerable Miles, who was born in 1673, and died in 1764, four years after the event related, over ninety years old.
Benjamin, the grandson, was born in 1739,- a young man just of age therefore in 1760; he lived in Essex street, opposite Daniels, near the old East meeting-house, where he was a constant attendant, being also a parish officer, and a warm friend of its pastor. He died June 11, 1812. This is his account :
"My Grandfather Miles about the year 1760 called on me to get a chaise for he wanted to ride round the town. When we ware in the chaise he told me to drive down to the Neck. I asked him why the street was laid out so crooked. He answered, there was no street laid out,- that there was a swamp from Mr. Higginson's land at the corner of the common down to Collins' Cove, north of the Neck-gate ;- that when a cart whent from the Gar- rison on the Neck up to Town, they went by the South side of the Swamp, and when the people built, they set their houses along by the cart way, that there was a wharfe on the creek back of Mr. Gerrish's house,6 where the shallops took in their stores, and a lane went from the Main street across Virgin Point over to Shallop Cove where they the shallops laid up in the winter season.
As we went over the Neck he told me where there was a row of cottages from the land near the Point of Rocks
" This was near the corner of Essex and East streets.
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downe to the bridge to cross over to Winter Island. He shew me where Mr. Abbot's fish house stood and fish street was that lead [ing] to Fish street wharfe, which was about 20 rods northerly of the now Winter Island Wharfe. That the Island was filled with flakes to dry fish on : comeing from the Neck he shewed me where the North Blockhouse stood, and that Pickets were set from the blockhouse to lowater mark. I asked him where lowater-mark was. He then said, the river above the barr was all a saltmarsh except the channells, and one channell came round Roache's Point and passed round towards the blockhouse and continued round to the Creek to the northward of the Neckgate; - that to cross the channell at the Picketts was up to a man's breast or neck at lowater, after he was a man grown. I asked him where the dirt came from to fill up the channell .. He said there was a point of land between Shallop Wharfe and Shallop Cove to the Eastward of the lane which contained . about five acres which was washed away into Collins' Cove and filled up the channells ; that the South River was Salt Marsh all above the point of land by Mr. Elvins' where the flats now were except the channells and Breaks into the Coves.
When we came up to Daniels St., he said if I would go round by Mr. Palfray's he would show me how that river was when he was young,- when we came near the bot- tom of Curtis St., he sayd, now stop the chaise, Benjamin, and I will show you. Where the flatts now are was a point of upland from Mr. Elvins' land? down so near to Long Point as to leave a very narrow passage for the river ; the channell entered between the two points and turned into Palfrey Cove.8 I asked him why that was
7 This was at the foot of Daniels street.
8 The Palfray estate was cast of the Custom-house, now Palfray Court.
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called Palfray Cove, he said one Palfray made fish there which he supposed gave it the name. Where the Channell came out of the Cove to Stage Point (where those rocks are was then uplands), it passed Giggles Island straight . over to the North Channell,-near the turn of the channel was a brake to the Easterd that went into Palfrays Cove, where Mr. Daniels built vessels and launched them into the Cove, that there was a low swampy piece of land to the Westward of Mr. Palfray's, and a brook run into the Cove the wet part of the season. The North Channell went near strait to the Westward till it came to the bury- ing point when it turned a little Southerly and then turned Northerly round by the piece of marsh, and so up the Millpond. The Channell between Stage Point and Gig- gles Island run by the now graving place into the cove, and then turned out by a long point opposite Joshua's wharf, and there come into the North Channell. The · whole river above the point of land where the flats now are was salt marsh except the Channells. A brake went from the Channell into Elder Browne's Cove, another into the Cove at Ingalls' Lane, and another into the Cove at Town House Lane up to Hue Peters' Cottage, another up Ruck Creek. I then observed to him that the Point of . land of Mr. Elvins' and the Marshes which had stood undoubtedly for ages should so soon disappear was to me Strange. He said it would not be so strange if you knew the then situation. The Neck and Winter Island was then a Timber forrest to the edge of the water. The first thing the white people did after they were landed was to cut the Trees off the Neck and Winter Island to dry fish on, and to fortify the Neck with two blockhouses,-that when the Neck was clear of trees, the North East wind (which before went up to Pickering Point), had a fair sweep through Cat Cove and over the low part of the Neck by
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the blockhouse, up by Beckett's and Hardys, and in a few years made a breach through the Point of land below Elvins' Point : the cross channel soon filled up so as to make a fair beach from Elvins land to Giggles' Island.9
I then asked which was the principal channel; he said he believed there was no difference in the depth of water, but at Spring tides the water runs by the South Channel to the Northward, and went up the North Channel which made that the best, but at niptides the water did not flow so fast and run up both channells; both Channells were equal except that the South was very crooked, and the North was straight, After the breach through the point of land by Elvins', Foot's house which was on the point of land with some other houses that were there, were washed down by the storms, and in a few years became flatts, when the cross channell was filled up.
The Merchants had some difficulty in getting to the wharf at Elder Brown's Cove, and they then contemplated building a wharfe on Giggles' Island ; the channel arch in the string of Union Wharfe was made where the North . Channell run ; the wharves above were built out to crowd the channell to the southward. Major Price built his wharf across the channell."
Here ends the quaint account of this "interview " of 1760 - would that there were many such ! - saved from destruction by the omnivorous hand of Dr. Bentley, and giving interesting information I am sure, to the many of your Association, interested in Salem's early history.
Had such a Society existed in his day no more enthusi- astic nor industrious member would have been found than he, and could he have foreseen its meeting on this favorite spot of his,- a part of that farm which he was so fond of
" Giggles Island became a part of Union Wharf.
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visiting, and which had belonged to successive families of his parish, Abbot, Ives, Derby, Brown and Allen,-he would have asked no pleasanter remembrance of his birth- day than this connection with it. Could he have foreseen the modern facilities of travel and improvement which have made this beautiful headland such a general and favorite resort, whose beauties had before been so little known and so sparingly enjoyed, no one would have rejoiced more than that lover of nature and of men, William Bentley.
Very truly yours, STANLEY WATERS.
Salem, June 22, 1880.
NOTES.
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A few days more of research into Dr. Bentley's "Day Book," at Worcester, have enabled me to add some extracts bearing upon the localities mentioned in the Ward "Interview," which are instructive and interesting.
In regard to " Virgin Point," and " Shallop Cove," he writes : -
"July 19, 1790. Mr. Browne delivered to me two coins, one of Lewis XIII & the other of Charles I of Great Britain. They were found upon a spot which the first settlers occupied. I intend to survey the ground, inquire the history, & search the records & then more particularly describe the coins.
21. Took a walk this morning to the spot at which the coins were found. . . .. The point after our crossing the run of water which flows from the Common to Neck Gate was called Virgin Point, said from three old maidens who lived near it the place being now to be seen. After we pass this point now in possession of Capt. Boardman & Gamaliel Hodges we come to the land upon which Vincent's Rope walk was built. There was a road into this land to Shallop Cove on the east of which was a four acre lot disposed of by the heirs of Hodges & Vincent. It now does not contain one-third of that quantity. Mr. V. & B. are now building a seawall to this lot to secure the remain-
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der to be filled up level with the top of this wall. The length is
Beyond is Shallop Cove. It entered thirty rods beyond the present fence and is partly filled, by earth carted into it, & by means of a dyke which formerly till within a few years ran across the entrance. The sides have been plowed down, & this year for the first time the adja- cent land has been plowed up by which plowing the coins were found. There was a point running out on the South side, - it had trees with- out the fence as it now runs in a line with the seawall in the memory of the present generation, but has entirely disappeared. Beyond is Planter's Marsh extending a considerable distance from the upland.
The first Settlers chose the North Shore by Skerry's & soon improved Shallop Cove for their fishing barks; they afterward settled Point of Rocks and made use of Cat Cove between Point of Rocks & Winter Island.
1796, Je. 29. Made an experiment at fishing from the end of Vin- cent's walk in Shallop Cove. It was too windy for great success.
June 1, 1803. Several buildings going on in "Pleasant Street." Old Shallop Cove is now formed into a cross street going from pleasant street to the water.
Jan. 31, 1817. Mr. Parker, son-in-law of Master Watson, has laid this week the keel of a Vessel in the old Shallop Cove below Pick- man's St. This was the place of business in Salem at the first landing on this side, but the water is so shallo'v as to forbid much hopes of its being useful again for purposes of navigation. I suppose the whole Cove from Roache's Point to Planters' Marsh is not half the depth as when I first knew it. The conduits at the bottom of the common and along the new settlements empty into it & carry much earth."
As to the Neck and its belongings, lie writes :
" Mch. 24, 1791. In conversation with Madam Renew whose family name was Abbot, I found the following facts respecting Abbot's Cove.
The inlet formed between the Island & the mainland towards the sea closed by the marsh & causeway. Her grandfather bought the house, whose cellar is now beneath the Headland of Juniper Point towards the Cove, of a Mr. Tapley. .. It had only a small spot of land · adjoining. Ile afterwards bought a small house near the Causeway and owned them both. He died sixty years ago in his ninety-third year. He must have been born about 1640.
The house first purchased he kept as a public house. There is no evidence in what year the first purchase was made or that Tapley was the original owner. Abbot was, she says, of Conn., & in man's estate when he purchased. He has however given names to the Rocks, Cove, & Farm probably from the Public House he kept.
The only recollection she has of the original or former state of the
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farm is, that when she was born her parents lived in the old house & had certain privileges for taking care of the pasture as the land adjoin-" ing was then called, & that it was owned by old Col. Higginson, & by him disposed of to Capt. Ives, & by his heirs to Capt. Richard Derby with whose heirs it now remains. It would be a proper inquiry whether the land canie to the Col. Higginson by his father & grand- father the ministers, as that might probably ascertain the original English Proprietors.
The informant M. Renew 10 the granddaughter is now eighty-five years old.
Oct. 19. Colloquium habui cum Vidua Renew filia Abbot qui vixit super the Neck terram jacentem infra Oppidum. Ipsa meminit Domum super Insulam Winter, sic nominatam, in qua habitavit Vir nomime Crow.
Dixit milli de Watertown seu de ædeficiis super The point of Rocks. Quinque domus illic fuerunt attinentia ad Waters, Harbord, Striker, Punchard; Unius nomen non in memoriam suam venit.
Super Watch House point ædificium in quo posita est una cannon. Duo Blockhouses prope oppidum ad introitum of the Neck. Insula habuit plurima Fishflakes.
Abbot sold to Ives, & the whole property afterwards passed into the same hands.
Sept. 24. . . In the inclosure belonging to the Farm & laying on Abbot's Cove but bounding on Winter Island near the causeway is a mound of earth rouud which I traced stones set in the earth & on each side hollows-that to the Eastward being evidently a cellar & the other artificial, though it is smaller, & both joining in a line the mound which is now nearly two feet above the stones. From the best con- jectures I can at present form it was a blockhouse as I have seen the foundations raised in this manner.
That at Fort Dummer is not unlike in a line of it though the whole fort was an enclosed oblong without a lookout in the centre & a Block- house at each corner. As there was a storm of rain coming up, I deferred digging till another opportunity. There must have been four houses on the farm as there are the remains of the cellar & inclos- ure on the opposite side of the Cove.
26. This day I pursued my inquiries respecting the house of last Saturday, and instead of a blockhouse I find by digging that this was a very large house, & that the heap which lay so high above the ancient method of putting foundations, is a heap of earth & stones with old bricks. & rubbish of which a large stack of chimneys was
10 Matthew Renough of Marblehead was md. to Mary Abbott by Rev. Mr. Jennison, Nov. 26, 1728.
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made. Upon inquiry I find this is the old House of Abbot & not the one on the other side of the Cove, and that it was a tavern. I traced the well about forty feet north of the house, the inclosure back aud the barn to the eastward of the house standing back from the road.
For my amusement I intend to pursue my inquiries & find if possible the time when last inhabited.
Ap. 11, 1795. Making inquiry into the history of the Farm upon the neck. M. Renew insists upon her particular knowledge of Tapley from whom her G. father bought the Tavern House & that one Crow lived upon the island while it was the property of Col. Higginson & that the house was deserted some time before it was taken away.
June 18, 1803. Capt. Allen building the wall towards the Cove in front of his piazza on Neck.
1807, Apr. 29. Capt. Allen has just planked his new piers on the North side of Abbot's Cove.
The waste of soil on the north side of the Neck between the bar & Hospital Point is very great annually. Acres have gone since my acquaintance with it.
Mch. 30, 1790. Found Bartlett at the new fort removing loads of wood of the old wharf upon Winter Island about a hundred yards round the point & within the wharf built by Derby. This old wharf was approached on the land over a ledge of rocks which reached to the flats & gave a security to the upper part. The old shipyard was within this wharf. Hereafter traces of this string of wharf may not be found.
June 15, 1793. Fish Street Wharf was upon the Winter Island just within the Cat Cove. The remains have been removed since my day.
May 23, 1801. Blowing of rocks upon Winter Island at the bottom of Fish Street, so that posterity will have no judgment of the form of the Shore upon which the first business was done by the primitive settlers. These rocks are for the new road which is to pass over the inlet between Fiske & Woodbridge's from Neptune St. to Water St. They have blowed also those rocks lying below the New Fort on the opposite side of Cat Cove, or Winter Island harbour.
May 16, 1790. Great preparations for launching (the Grand Turk). In digging the ship's dock four feet below the surface was found the body of a tree of red oak & sound excepting the sap. It was cut off & drawn out above twelve feet long with a crotch in the middle & two limbs.
Mar. 9, 1798. Find that there were 7 Indians found buried at the Point of Rocks at the S. W. end with those stone balls with heads supposed to be used in fishing. This land is now entirely gone.
Mr. Becket at Point of Rocks found irons & bolts which discovered a building yard on the low part towards Cat Cove.
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Sawdust & chips are yet found under the mud from the Point off Daniels' Lane, Foot's formerly & afterwards Elvins' Point.
Nov. 24, 1818. Capt. Waters informs of a large branch of a trec found at the point of flats off Foot's point which proved to be walnut. This point has disappeared since the settlement of Salem.
Jan. 21, 1819. The Oak drawn from Foot's point, see 'Essex Register' Dec. 30, 1818,-first appeared in the salt storm 23 Sept. 1815, & was thirty-five feet long & eleven inches over the butt with a crotch at the upper end. It was in the highest possible preservation & must have been there much over a century.
I have elsewhere particularly noticed this fact. The Clay under our land has much alum as may be seen from the efflorescence when the clay is turned out. Allum concurs with the other salts in the preser- vation while buried."
"Foot's Point" lay at the bottom of Daniels' St. extending south- easterly into the South River or Harbor, and when it was washed away, the estate next north of it, owned by Richard Elvins, became the Point & gave its name to it. Richard Elvins is called 'baker' in the deeds of his property and appears to have been a prominent man in the East Parish in his time, and to have bought real estate in other parts of it as well as this homestead. I find no record of him after about 1744, nor of any settlement of his estate. 11
11 Two most Interesting entries in Dr. Bentley's journal, which I have since been fortu- nate enough to happen upon, explain the disappearance of the name of Deacon Elvins from our records, and throw clear light also upon a hitherto dark subject in the history of the East Society, the character of Mr. Jennison, and the reason of his dismission.
All knowledge upon these points had been lost as long ago as 1845, when Dr. Flint in his Farewell Discourse spoke of the entire ignorance upon the subject which existed, though it seems hardly possible that none of the elder people of the society then living were able to give some information on the matter, or that no general tradition had survived.
Dr. Flint wonders if it were some "bodlly infirmity " that prevented the continuance of Jennison's labors, and Dr. Bentley more than once speaks of his predecessor's "eccen- tricities," but in the following explicit statement he clears away all doubt, and lifts after all these years, to our great satisfaction, that veil which Dr. Flint regretted as dropped forever.
"Mch. 22, 1801. Last Sunday for the first time since I have been in Salem, we had lay "exhortations," for the edification of the Flock. I have not heard that this ever took place before except in a more qualified sense in our own Parish. In 1735 during Mr. Jenni- son's tine, who was at last dismissed by consent from his known intemperance, when he was not able to attend public service, he advised Deacon Elvins to pray & read & exhiort & then dismiss the assembly.
A wag once wrote on the Church door
"Our Preacher Silly Billy's sick And we've our preaching from our Baker Dick."
Mr. Elvins was flattered by his success & instituted praying meetings at his house & finally mounted the Pulpit, & afterwards left his occupation & went & settled at Black point, now Scarborough, Maine, & marrled the Widow of his predecessour, Mr. Willard, & the mother of the present President of Harvard College. My Predecessour, Mr. Diman,
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He md. July 14, 1715, Sarah Beadle, and in Dec., 1723, they were dismissed from the First Church to the East. At the former his chil- dren were baptized.
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